“How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.” -- G. K. Chesterton

Followers

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

I am terrified to fly. I had a bad flight once in college, going back to school from Winter Break. There were about five passengers on a big commercial plane, and we took off late from Newark in a blinding snowstorm, very early in the morning. Out of my window I saw lights, very close to our plane, as we were ascending. I think we almost hit another plane. Whether we did or not, it terrified me. Then, I flew into Boston for work once. No one warned me that it was perfectly normal for the plane to fly out over the Atlantic and bank so steeply that all you can see out you window is water. I haven't flown since 1993.

I am a Mac person. I have never in my life owned a PC. I am on my fifth Mac in the last fifteen years.

I have lived more than half of my life in either Erie or Niagara County, counting college.

I am completely Irish. Period.

I have started to write at least five novels. I never finish them.

I am a revert to the Catholic faith. I never formally left it, but I did not practice my faith (or any other one) for about eleven years.

I love Golden Age detective books. I own have read everything Agatha Christie has ever written, including two autobiographies and a book of poems. I also own all of the Sherlock Holmes books and all of Chesterton's Father Brown books.

I am an avid planner and a recovering procrastinator.

I love to cook and bake. I seldom follow a recipe to the letter. My cookbooks are covered with notes in the margins about what I actually did when I made the dish.

I would love to have a viable business selling used books online. I do that now, but I don't devote enough time to it to make it really profitable.

I drink two cups of coffee every morning. No more, no less.

I don't have any nieces or nephews on my side of the family, but on my husband's side I have eighteen nieces and nephews, two nephews-in-law and one grand-nephew.

We own a huge amount of books. We have books in every room of our house except the bathrooms. Even have bookcases in the hallways. I am supposed to be organizing and cataloging them, but..... (see # 10 above)

I have read every Jane Austen novel, and seen at least one movie adaptation of each one.

My grandmothers were named Catherine and Kathryn. My aunt was named Katherine. My husband's grandmother was named Katarzyna. If we ever have a baby girl, she will be named Cathryn.

I have more blood relations (first cousins once removed and second cousins) in Ireland than in America.

I have always loved to watch sports. I have been a fan of the Mets since I was eight. My favorite sport to watch on TV is baseball. Close seconds are football and NASCAR.

I have a devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux. My father grew up in Little Flower parish in Flatbush, Brooklyn. My mother grew up at St. Theresa's in Sunnyside, Queens. I took Therese as my confirmation name.

Before I was married, if you considered my confirmation name, my initials spelled MATH. I aced the math regents my freshman year in high school, and earned the monicker Ms. MATH from a certain disgruntled classmate who only got a 99.

We don't have cable TV or a video game console. My children don't have hand-held games or cell phones. They are not allowed to watch TV commercials or to be on the computer without me. They read things printed on paper, and play with things they can actually touch.

Wherever we have lived, we have had homeschoolers as close neighbors, just coincidentially. I think there are a lot more homeschoolers out there than people imagine.

I have learned that motherhood makes one much less squeamish. I'm not even afraid of spiders anymore.

I love to do needlecrafts like crocheting and counted cross-stitch, but I seldom find the time. I have a pile of unfinished projects. After my mother-in-law passed away, I found some of her unfinished projects. It made me sad, and I determined to finish all of mine. I haven't stuck with it.

There, 25 things about me. I know I just tagged a bunch of people in another meme this week. I was tagged on this one, so I had to do it! I will try not to tag too many of you twice. If I do, I'm sorry!

Monday, January 26, 2009

From This Week on ABC yesterday, explaining why in this time of fiscal disaster the federal government must spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraception:

"The family planning services reduce cost," Pelosi said, "One of the elements of this package is assistance to the states. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

Reduce costs by reducing people? Two examples to illustrate how this does not work:

Europe - contracepting western civilization on that continent right out of existence. They are not even able to reproduce at replacement rate anymore.

Social Security - the idea that many workers being taxed to pay for the retirement bliss of the few depends on there being more workers than retirees. We've known for at least a decade that we have a severe shortage of workers compared with retirees.

Less people equals a dying culture. Laying aside the issues of abortion and the sanctity of the sacrament of matrimony, economically speaking, less people means a smaller economy, smaller marketplace, smaller tax base.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Here are some quotes from the transcript of Obama's inaugural address today:

"The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

[...]

It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate."

Had I fallen off the turnip truck yesterday, I would have said, "Oh, good. He's pro-life."

Monday, January 05, 2009

Fr. Groeschel brings his wisdom to bear in an exposition of the seven main virtues of Christian life. Beginning with the four cardinal virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice), Groeschel explains their human characteristics, and how they can be elevated by grace to a supernatural level. For the three theological virtues (faith, hope and charity), he explains how they flow from God's grace. Examples from life pepper the text, making for clear examples and keeping the material interesting. A good introduction to the important virtues for anyone interested in the Catholic faith.